[JURIST] Terry Collins [official profile], director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction [official website] has set forth several changes in Ohio's lethal injection protocol in a report [PDF text] and letter [PDF text] addressed to Ohio Governor Bob Taft made public Wednesday. The changes were prompted by the problematic May execution of Joseph Clark [CantonRep report, registration required], where the execution was delayed for an hour-and-a-half when staff struggled to find a vein to administer the lethal injection cocktail, and the one they did use collapsed before injection.

The report recommended easing "artificial self-imposed time barriers" on execution team members, finding two intravenous sites before the execution begins, reviewing the medical file prior to execution and observing the inmate well before the scheduled execution. AP has more. The Columbus Dispatch has local coverage.